Book Review and Giveaway – “Outlaw” by Angus Donald

As a kid, I fell in love with Robin Hood. Errol Flynn swashbuckling through the forest all clean and pretty. The collected stories I read over and over again. The 50’s TV show (written by blackballed Hollywood writers with a decided anti-McCarthyism bent) with the stirring theme song:

Robin Hood, Robin Hood
Riding through the glen.
Robin Hood, Robin Hood
With his band of men.
Feared by the bad, loved by the good.
Robin Hood, Robin Hood, Robin Hood.

Okay, it’s more stirring with the music. (You can listen here.) Growing up, the legend of Robin Hood was everywhere as the ultimate hero who stood up for the little guy against evil oppressors: corrupt sheriffs and greedy churchmen. We all knew the stories of loyal Little John, the strong right hand man; tipsy Friar Tuck; Will Scarlet, handy with a sword; Alan A-Dale the minstrel; and the chaste, beautiful and smart Maid Marian, Robin’s enduring love. After stirring adventures, good King Richard arrives in time to pardon the outlaws, give them lands and titles and join Robin and Marian in marriage.

It’s an iconic tale of good vs. evil and happily-ever-afters that attracts artists back to the theme over and over. Numerous books have updated the story or tinkered with the timelines. Directors have put their own stamp on the story from the Mel Brooks’satirical “Men in Tights” to the most recent Ridley Scott entry, where yeoman Robin is responsible for the Magna Carta. It’s very hard to bring something new or fresh to the story.

Which brings me to Outlaw by Angus Donald. All the traditional pieces are in place: time, setting, characters. The story is told in first person by Alan Dale as an old man recounting his youthful adventures with the outlawed Robin.

With this instrument, the Lord wiling, I will write his story, and my story, and set before the world the truth about the vicious outlaw and master thief, the murderer, the mutilator, and tender lover, the victorious Earl and commander of an army, and ultimately, the great magnate who brought a King of England to the table at Runnymede and made him submit to the will of the people of the land; the story of a man I knew simply as Robin Hood.

Yes, you read right “the vicious outlaw and master thief, the murderer, the mutilator.” Robin, in Donald’s tale, is a mafia don. A younger son of nobility, outlawed for torturing and murdering a priest who abused him. According to Friar Tuck a “cold-hot man…with the raging power of anger but the icy control of a calm man…the most dangerous of all.” Our first glimpse of Robin is of him holding court, in a scene reminiscent of The Godfather. Peasants bring their protection money (food, drink, armaments, supplies.) Robin settles disputes between neighbors and metes out justice to an informer, by cutting out his tongue. The Merry Men are a tough bunch of enforcers.

In this story, Robin Hood steals from the rich, but not because he identifies with the poor or wants to redress a wrong, but because…well…the rich are rich. You know the answer to the old joke about why the thief robbed the bank? “That’s where the money is.” And Robin needs money. He uses his stolen cash to fund his loan-shark business, with the local Jews as fronts (usury being forbidden to Christians.)

As the story unfolds, we get a picture of a complicated man: educated for that age, shrewd, intelligent, ruthless, a brilliant strategist with a chivalric love and a taste for good music. Robin, a scion of the ruling class, is a man with a plan. Ailing King Henry II and his likely heir Richard are bankrupting the country with their wars. Robin plans to buy a title from a desperate ruler, restore his respectability and marry his loyal love Marie-Anne. To that end, Donald does well in writing the story from the much more sympathetic POV of the young Alan Dale.

In telling the tale of how Robin executes his plan, Donald gives us a rollicking story: ambushes, intrigue, a traitor, and strange denizens of the deep forest; court life, troubadours and Templars. We learn about medieval weapons, class divisions, food, clothing, and pagan rituals. It’s fast-paced with well-developed characters, plot twists, and an exciting climax. I read the second half of the book straight through. It’s a well-told tale. I’d recommend it to anyone who likes historical fiction and enjoys a different take on an old story.

[End of formal review and beginning of personal reaction.]

Having read the book, enjoyed it and recommended it to other readers, I have to admit, it left me feeling dissatisfied. I put off writing this review until I had puzzled out, “Why?” If it wasn’t the characters, plot or writing; what struck me as wrong? It came to me after watching a special on the History Channel about the origins of Robin Hood. Over and over, Robin is portrayed as a man of the people, a free yeoman who falls afoul of the law by poaching the king’s deer to feed starving people. In later years, he is sometimes “promoted” to a small landholder. The Ridley Scott movie returns him to his yeoman roots.

Angus Donald makes a bold choice in his characterization of Robin. It’s new, fresh, different and probably realistic for the times. It makes sense that a well-educated nobleman, who knew the way his class thinks and acts, could marshal the men, command the loyalty and plan the campaigns that Robin did in this book. But I didn’t like him. I felt (some) sympathy for his plight, but, in the end, he was just another rich guy using the poor as a stepping stone for his personal ambitions. The fact that he was charismatic and wronged didn’t take away from his casual brutality and selfish ends.

Today’s world is full of selfish people: CEOs making mega bucks; corporations paying no taxes on billions in earnings; captains of dirty power industries not only polluting our environment, but taking taxpayer subsidies to do it; congresspeople who won’t raise the taxes on the rich a measly 2% but will slash nutrition programs for poor women and children and home heating oil subsidies for the elderly. (An interesting discussion of wealth inequality in the US by Economics Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz here.) I don’t want to read about another selfish person being held up as a hero. I want a modern-day Robin Hood (or better yet thousands of Robin Hoods) to stand up to power and make things better. Donald’s mafia boss Robin didn’t do it for me.

As an adult, I’m fully prepared to have my childhood icons challenged, and love to see artists try different takes on tired themes; but (for me) this was the wrong Robin, at the wrong time. I want my Robin: the good guy from my youth, the yeoman bowman, who stood up for the poor and oppressed, who fought corruption and won the girl. I want a better world and a better Robin.

***

Please note: I received this Advance Reading Copy of Outlaw through the Early Reading Program of LibraryThing.com. The opinions in this review are my own.

This is a gently used, once-read Advanced Review Copy (uncorrected proof) which I’d love to pass on to another reader (sorry US only.) Entry is easy: leave a comment on this post (make sure to give your email when asked, but not necessary in the post). If you want a second entry, sign up to follow the blog. For a third chance, repost this giveaway on your Facebook, blog, Twitter, website, etc. and post the link in your comment. Don’t worry if your comment doesn’t appear immediately, because I moderate comments and don’t spend my life at my computer. I’ll announce the winners on Wednesday, April6. Good luck!

16 Responses

It’s hard to give up our heroes from childhood, and I have to agree I don’t grab a book in order to read about another selfish jerk made into a “hero.” It does sound like Angus Donald did his homework with this book.

Dear Faith,
Thank you very much for taking the time to read and review my book Outlaw. You have obviously put in a lot of effort, and your review is balanced, considered and well written.

I’m sorry that you didn’t like my take on Robin Hood. The book (the first in a long series) has been out in the UK for nearly two years now and I’ve found that it quite often polarises the people who read it on the basis of gender. I don’t want to make too much of a crass, not-to-mention sexist, generalisation but broadly speaking, women hate the book and men love it. And I think that is down to my portrayal of Robin. When I was thinking about his character, two words kept recurring in my mind: “ruthless” and “ambitious”. These are not terribly attractive traits, I know, but I think they have a more positive resonance with men than with women.

For the record, I should point out that Robin is also loving and kind, with a deep sense of responsibility to his followers (if not to anyone outside his circle). He is also capable of great self-sacrifice (as we discover in later books).

Anyway, I’m sorry if my Robin disappointed you. And thank you once again for being kind enough to review my book.
With best wishes from,
Angus Donald

Thanks so much for dropping by and leaving a message! It’s always great to get a response from the author. I hope the review didn’t disappoint you too much because I did like the book; mentioned that it captured my attention straight through; praised its research, writing, plot, character development, etc; and recommended it to other readers. I, in no way, “hated” it. As I said, it took me several days to puzzle out why I felt vaguely dissatisfied, and that had more to do with today’s political situation in the US than your take on Robin (as I admitted in my post.) I had no intention of posting a “bad” review…I only write reviews of books that I enjoy and can recommend to others. Consequently, I read far more books than I review! BTW, my reviews on commercial sites (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.) will be sans political commentary, but on my own blog, I felt free to include it. I will insert a phrase making it more clear where the review ends and my reaction begins.

As an author, I know the hard work and anguish that goes into creating a novel and the gut-wrenching anxiety that goes with releasing it to the public and waiting to hear if people liked it. My apologies for any gut-wrenching I caused you.

Thanks Faith – no gut-wrenching, I assure you. Yours was a fair and largely positive review and I’m sure that as writers we both firmly believe in free speech and the value of an honest opinion. Good luck with your own books.
All the best, Angus

Sounds enjoyable. My wife enjoyed the TV series with Richard Armitage as Guy (Robin’s name escapes me, but she gushes about the evil Guy) and I couldn’t watch it after the first few episodes because Robin was such a goody two-shoes he didn’t deserve to live (he passes up dozens of chances to kill the evil Sheriff because he’d just be replaced even though NO replacement could possibly be as murdering a psychopath).

Richard was a wonderful Guy! I struggled through the newest series until they killed off Marion, after making us watch her and Robin go through two…count them….two! long agonizing death scenes where they marry each other.

This is a fine and balanced review, and I quite enjoyed reading it. Robin Hood is one of my favorite legends, and I’m always fascinated by different portrayals of him. It sounds like your opinion of this book would be similar to my own — as much as I love innovative and well-written takes on familiar subjects, I also prefer a more upright and idealistic Robin Hood; same as I prefer my King Arthur. To me, that is an essential part of their natures, and their durability as legends. We may admire cynical and ruthless leaders such as Alexander the Great or Napoleon, but we don’t fall in love with them. We do fall in love with Arthur and Robin Hood. For a similar reason, most readers of the Iliad prefer the good man Hector to brutal Achilles and cynical Odysseus.

Still, I appreciate well-written and interesting approaches to legends, and I will put this book on my “to read” list. I think you gave it a fair review, and Angus Donald’s own response to you is gracious and chivalrous — that is, a voice I would like to read.

One of my favorite Robin Hood retellings is Robin McKinley’s “Outlaws of Sherwood.” While still the character of Robin himself isn’t as strong a leader in that book as he should be, she really captures the deep friendship of the brotherhood of Merry Men in a way that really moved me.

I’m afraid I stuck in time somewhat…my favorite Robin will always be Michael Praed as Herne’s son in the series that aired in the 80’s.

I only liked the first year and could never make it thru the wooden performances of Connery the Younger. I’ve never found a written version that moved me as much. And the costumes in that short lived series made me smile.

But my husband’s favorite is Sean Connery as the aging Robin to the lovely Audrey Hepburn as Marian the nun. Watching Robert Shaw mug as the sheriff was suitably gritty, too.